NAACL 2021 Queer in AI Social

Queer in AI is throwing virtual socials at NAACL 2021. People of all identities (including allies) are invited to attend. NAACL registration is not required to attend the social.

In addition to socials, this time, we will be debuting our mentorship sessions and organizing many D&I talks and panels at NAACL 2021.

Overview & How to Join

We are organizing two 1.5 hour socials. All socials will be in Queer in AI's gather town.

Social A: 1:30AM GMT on Monday, Jun 7th (convert to your timezone)

Social B: 1:30PM GMT on Monday, Jun 7th (convert to your timezone)

To join, check-in by filling up this form.

If you don't have support to attend the conference, fill out this form by 5 May and your entry fee will be covered, although NAACL registration is not required to attend our social.

Reach out to the organizers directly by emailing to queer-in-nlp@googlegroups.com.

Speakers

Aditya Joshi (he/him) - "How do I say gay in Hindi?": The Language of the Queer in India" (Twitter)

Aditya is a machine learning engineer at Notiv, a super-cool meeting notetaker that uses NLP to make professional meetings productive. He obtained a joint PhD degree from IIT Bombay, India, and Monash University, Australia for a thesis on computational sarcasm. To spot him in a crowded gay bar in Sydney, look for a solitary gay guy standing in a corner, looking bored.

Despite India's 22 official languages, LGBTI+ Indians often resort to English words when coming out to their loved ones because there just are not enough words to describe an LGBTI+ person. This talk will discuss the language of the queer in India - spanning ancient scriptures, queerphobic slurs, and popular culture - and how the absence of words to describe himself in my language impacted my journey as a gay man. The talk hopes to draw the audience's attention to similar cultural phenomena in their languages.

Nikita Srivatsan (she/they) - We Need to Talk about Trans Rights, More than Ever Before (Twitter)

Nikita Srivatsan is a 4th year PhD student at the LTI at Carnegie Mellon University, currently visiting UC San Diego where she lives with two reptiles, and several houseplants of questionable health. Her work focuses on using variational methods to disentangle latent features from surface-level information, with a recent focus on visual aspects of language including fonts and palaeography analysis. In her free time she claims to write electronic music, but mostly just uses that as an excuse to hoard analog synthesizers.

Her talk will focus on current anti-trans bills that are being introduced in US. She will discuss opinions and rants on why this is so wrong and how we can be stronger allies to trans folks.

Organizers

For any concerns or questions, please reach out to any of us either on Rocketchat or our contact info given in our websites. Your concerns will be kept confidential.

Mike (Moike) McKenna (he/they): Moike is a queer data scientist and lawyer at CVS. Normally he designs chatbots for prescription adherence, but right now he's working on CVS's vaccination equity program. He strongly believes BERT and ERNIE are a couple but (sips tea) that's none of Kermit's business. Because of two intercontinental relocations in spring, he's experienced 5 winters and 1 summer in the last 3 years. He has two pythons, a kangaroo, and a drop bear as pets.

Jack Dukatz (he/him): He currently works as a lead AI scientist for Target in the online search space. He studied NLP at the University of Arizona, but he's interested in conversations about all things AI. Outside of AI you can ask him about anything related to the outdoors, video games, dungeons and dragons, craft beer, and of course his dog Eliza.

Code of Conduct and Reporting

Please read Queer in AI code of conduct which will be strictly followed in the social. Recording (screen recording or screenshots) is prohibited. All participants are expected to maintain the confidentiality of the members.

NAACL2021 adheres to the ACL’s code of ethics, ACL’s anti-harassment policy, and ACL’s code of conduct. Violations of the code of ethics as well as complaints raised under the anti-harassment policy should be brought to the Professional Conduct Committee, who can be reached during the conference via the PCC channel in RocketChat, or you may also contact any current member of the NAACL Executive Board or NAACL D&I chairs. Please be assured that if you approach the PCC or NAACL board members, your concerns will be kept in strict confidence, and we will consult with you on any actions taken.

All sessions and socials of Queer in AI adheres to Queer in AI Anti-harassment policy. Any participant who experiences harassment or hostile behavior may contact Queer in AI Safety Team (ANYTIME). Please be assured that if you approach us, your concerns will be kept in strict confidence, and we will consult with you on any actions taken.

Credits for the Pride ACL logo: Cassidy Henry and Emma Manning from this thread.